Shoppers duped into paying more for 'heavier' wine bottles because they think they are higher quality

Shoppers could be tricked into buying heavier, more expensive bottles of wine because they think they are of higher quality, according to a new study.

Wine producers are able to fool customers into paying more for some wines by using thicker glass bottles or making a deeper indent on the underside, researchers claimed.

Standard bottles of wine all contain the same 75cl of liquid but consumers believe heavier bottles will contain better-quality wine, according to research published in the Food Quality and Preference journal.

Heavy red? New study suggests heavy bottles of wine are not necessarily of better quality.

Historically thicker bottles were used on more expensive wines to protect them during transportation.

Although heavier bottles were found to be more expensive, the extra cost does not necessarily translate to higher quality, based on 150 people looking at 275 wines from five countries on sale in a shop in Oxford.

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The findings showed that on average red wine bottles weighing more when compared to white, with normal shoppers more likely to be swayed by heavier wines than collectors or professional wine experts.

Professor Charles Spence of Oxford University, co–author of the study, told the Daily Telegraph: 'The weight–quality correlation is a general response in many different product categories.

'In wine it may have been [historically] that the more expensive wines were in heavier bottles to prevent breakage. Today I think it is definitely done more with marketing in mind.

'It is something to be cautious about. Sometimes you see people wandering around a shop with a few bottles in their hands and weighing them up while deciding which one is better. If you know about this, you are less likely to be manipulated by these subconscious cues.'

Professor Spence also claimed that drinking wine out of a heavier glass could make the same wine taste better because of the way the brain links weight to value.